Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

How Not to Build a Space Program

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by

James A. Bacon
in

orbital_launch

Barely a month after its successful launch of a robotic spacecraft from the rocket launch facility at Wallops Island — a tremendous P.R. coup for the Virginia-based space program — Orbital Sciences Corp. is suing the state of Virginia for $16.5 million to recover cost overruns incurred during construction of the launch pad. Space News has the story here.

Orbital struck a deal with Virginia to launch its missions from Pad-0A, which the state agreed to build. However, Virginia bungled the construction project, which led to delays and cost overruns beginning in 2010, Orbital said in the complaint. The company stepped in — “reluctantly,” according to the complaint — and started buying MARS assets to provide the state with cash to continue construction.

Orbital bought $42 million worth of hardware, with the understanding that Virginia would eventually buy these assets back, the complaint says. The state bought back about $25.5 million worth of hardware in 2012, but balked at repurchasing a horizontal rocket transporter and associated hardware. The state argued this hardware could only be used for Antares and therefore was not a reimbursable cost. Orbital disagreed.

The Aerospace Corp., a federally funded think tank specializing in military space, was brought in to mediate and ruled  in Orbital’s favor in 2012, according to the complaint. Orbital subsequently sought payment but was told June 5 by Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton that the state would not pay.

Dulles-based Orbital Sciences is a key player at Wallops and a reason for the facility’s growing recognition as a serious player in the space-launch industry. While Florida’s Cape Canaveral remains the undisputed No. 1 in the field, writes Joe Pappalardo for Popular Mechanics, “The spaceport at Wallops Island, Va., is emerging as a hub of the launch industry. Wallops is larger and much better established than the newbie spaceports rising in places like New Mexico, Michigan, and Indiana.”

Let’s hope Orbital and the McDonnell administration can get this matter settled and move on to bigger and better things.

— JAB

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7 responses to “How Not to Build a Space Program”

  1. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    “The Aerospace Corp., a federally funded think tank specializing in military space, was brought in to mediate and ruled in Orbital’s favor in 2012, according to the complaint. Orbital subsequently sought payment but was told June 5 by Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton that the state would not pay.”

    The Imperial Clown Show in Richmond rides again!

    Orbital should terminate its contract at Wallops Island and move its headquarters to another state.

    The blithering idiots in America’s worst and most corrupt state government will only learn by being punched squarely in the face. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

  2. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    so who is the Va agency that was in charge of pursuing this and on what basis?

    it sounds like it has potential but like a lot of other things in Va, the public knows virtually nothing about it… so why would you expect them to react to this at all – pro or con?

    I mean for all we know.. this could be another MWAA… right?

  3. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Weird,
    With all the money the administration has thrown around with the opportunity fund etc for industry recruitment, one would think they would honor what they agreed to do.

  4. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    Connaughton probably used the money to pay for the door hangers, pump toppers, mailings, print ads, radio and tv airtime that are part of his Bi-County Parkway PR blitz. We can only hope that they send Sean on a one-way trip from Wallops Island to promote “Space Tourism”.

  5. Darrell Avatar
    Darrell

    Does the state own the facility?

  6. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    everything about the State’s role in this is totally under the radar.

    … as usual….

    Virginia continues to have this problem where the elites do what they think is best for Virginia… then they run like hell when it blows up on them.

  7. accurate Avatar
    accurate

    I was interested in this posting due to a bit of a different reason. I recently changed jobs (again), sort of. I’m still working for the Houston Airport System but took a different job at the smallest of our airports, Ellington. Ellington doesn’t deal with commercial flights, instead we cater to the Air National Guard, NASA, Coast Guard and private jets. The city has seen fit to push Ellington to become a ‘spaceport’. Unlike the story, we don’t/won’t cater to the vertical takeoffs, rather like the shuttle of old, the space craft will be bundled on the top of a large plane and flown up and the space craft launched. Our proximity to the Gulf is one of the the ‘features’ that they are trying to sell, along with the close tie to NASA. Oh, and I’m thinking (since I recently passed the big 60) that this might/will be my last job change.

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